When Science published a monkey study nearly 2 years ago that showed an anti-inflammatory antibody effectively cured monkeys intentionally infected with the simian form of the AIDS virus, the dramatic results turned many heads.
But some skeptical researchers thought the data looked too good to be true and predicted the intervention wouldn’t work on HIV in humans.
“We did not see those dramatic results at all,” Fauci said at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam that is taking place this week.
The researchers then stopped giving both the antibodies and ARVs, and the monkeys still completely controlled SIV for more than 9 months.
The virus quickly came roaring back in control animals that had only received ARVs and then had that treatment halted.
Some considered the antibody-treated monkeys cured, as they appeared capable of indefinitely controlling the small quantity of virus that persisted without any further interventions.
Kenneth Mayer, a prominent HIV/AIDS clinician who is the medical research director at the Fenway Institute in Boston, called the results “sobering.” »
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